One of the best designers I've ever worked with had a similar great strategy with clients who considered themselves design experts (usually senior marketing/advertising managers) and who would almost inevitably want to change something in the “final” design.
The solution he had was to leave one obvious minor flaw in the final design – a color which doesn't quite match, odd font choice, etc. It was a lighting rod for unnecessary fiddling and was quite successful for keeping the changes quick and low-impact.
- A theater director was putting on a new show about some workers in a factory. In the background he put a wagon wheel. Before the premiere the communist representative came to evaluate the show. It was usual that some random scenes would be adjudicated unacceptable and cut from the show. When discussion started the communist rep asked what the wheel, which was used in agriculture, was doing in a show about factory workers. The director argued that it shows the connection between proletariat and agriculture workers. A vigorous discussion followed at the end of which it was decided that the wheel should be removed. The director ended up being the first ever to not have any scene cut.
- A painter visited France and desperately wanted to bring back some modern art reproductions so that his colleagues, who where not allowed to leave the country, would get a chance to see them. But modern art was forbidden and there would be no way customs would let the reproductions in if they knew what they were. So the painter got also some nude reproductions. The customs people confiscated the nudes as soon as they saw them and let the modern art go through.
This reminds me of a scene from the movie "This Film Is Not Yet Rated", where Stone and Parker describe inserting a super-graphic sex scene into the movie "Team America", which they knew the MPAA board would ask them to remove, attracting their attention and allowing them to keep their R rating.
The solution he had was to leave one obvious minor flaw in the final design – a color which doesn't quite match, odd font choice, etc. It was a lighting rod for unnecessary fiddling and was quite successful for keeping the changes quick and low-impact.